Pain In the Ass, Part Two

A quickie today, it's late and I'm old.

I posted my last entry before the Chicago Marathon. Good Lord. If you haven't already, just Google "Chicago marathon" or look at any of the newspapers. It's sad that some of the race organizers are trying to spin it by blaming the runners for taking too much water and splashing it on themselves. They're just trying to stay hydrated and cool down, for f's sake! I also found it amazing to hear from our coach, Jeff, that the water stations were every other mile instead of every mile. I guess that was the plan pre-heat wave, to prevent people from getting hyponeuremia (sp?) when you die from drinking too much water so you basically dilute yourself -- too few electrolytes. I think someone died on the course a few years ago because of it. But this is pretty rare to begin with, and not sweating extra water out certainly wouldn't have been an issue this year -- I, having no medical or sports knowledge, can say that with confidence -- so why not add stations every mile, like they have in NY? There's been enough Monday morning quarterbacking, I just hope that the race organizers stop spinning and apologize.

Back to NYC.

Sunday was a family gathering that was for the books. What I thought was going to be a medium-sized get-together turned into 21 adults and 6 children under the age of 7. It was pretty hilarious. I hope the restaurant recovers. I won't bore you with the details...yet...

Monday after spending the day at the "Brian Stokes Mitchell at Carnegie Hall" rehearsal I went back to CPW for a cortisone shot to help the tendonitis (they were open on Columbus Day!) Not the worst experience, I will say. The doctor was very thorough, talked about the risks (infection, potential weakening of muscles, etc.) but those are rare and I was wavering because it was already feeling a little better after a day and a half of rest, but then I figured, let's go for it. Considering the size of the needle, it wasn't that painful; after all, there's a lot of padding back there! The key to the success of this procedure is that even if everything feels 100 percent better, treat it like it doesn't. So lots of ice, stretching and Aleve. The doctor said that ideally I should take five days off, but he settled for one.

Tuesday, some pain around the injection site, but the hip was feeling better. Basically it hurt to sit down, like it does, well, after you get an injection in your ass. Not easy when you're in school all day, sitting down.

Tuesday night, Cat Hill. Before we began, we pumped one of our Teammates, Erica, for information about another Teammate, Karen, who went to Chicago. Karen herself showed up a few minutes later. She talked about it a little, but didn't seem to want to get into it; Jeff and David (another Teammate who went to Chicago to cheer Karen on) gave us more info after the workout about the Chicago Fred's Team runners and the race in general. I can't imagine how Karen must feel -- to train for an event for so long and have it be Chicago 2007 -- I don't know how I would've handled it. Tough it out, or quit? I would have been devastated either way. Karen's pretty amazing.

A light workout, we have a 20-miler this weekend, the last long one. 2 sets of 3 repeats of Cat Hill at a moderate pace. I was aware of the hip, but it wasn't hurting, just a couple of twinges. I kind of wanted to do a little more...